30 June 2014

Better data retrieval and access, greater interoperability of data and improved coordination across the EU top the list of benefits perceived by both data producers and users of spatial information on the environment.

16 - 17 September 2014

Organisation: European Space Agency (ESA)

Location: Noordwijk, the Netherlands

Workshop Overview:

Earth Observation has demonstrated that it is a suitable technology to support Cryosphere research and applications, providing unique information to advance the scientific understanding of cryospheric processes and their link to climate change.

ESA, through the results of ERS-1, ERS-2, Envisat and CryoSat, has contributed significantly to this understanding. In the future, the Sentinel series will maintain this contribution providing continuous and long-term data streams to address numerous scientific and operational aspects on Cryosphere research and applications.

A significant amount of data have been also collected through different targeted ESA campaigns providing a unique set of new airborne observations and in-situ data that support the scientific community to further advance in the development and consolidation of novel observational principles and retrieval techniques. These data represent an additional opportunity to explore and advance in the definition of novel mission concepts for the Cryosphere with a special emphasis on snow.

By reviewing recent field campaign based on ground, airborne and satellite observations the workshop will provide a state-of-the-art overview of techniques to observe snow properties by taking snow in other cryosphere disciplines into account.

This database is based on the book of Herbert J. Kramer Observation of the Earth and its Environments and describes over 600 missions in detail. Online updated version of "Earth Observation History of Technical Introduction" available as of January 02, 2017.